The Luke Paper Mill in Allegany County, Maryland. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun)
Power struggle series
Maryland leaders bill the state as a pacesetter in green energy, offering renewable power projects millions of dollars in subsidies since 2004 that come from residents' electricity bills. But much of the money has gone to projects that are far from clean -- including an Allegany County paper mill and a Baltimore trash incinerator -- instead of solar and wind farms. In 2017, "Power struggle" explained how that came to be, and what it means for the future of renewable energy. It won second place for explanatory reporting in the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual contest.
A Maryland paper mill burns a polluting sludge called black liquor. The state calls it green energy.
How a trash incinerator — Baltimore's biggest polluter — became 'green' energy
Maryland green energy projects stall amid protests from worried neighbors
Debate about the issues raised in the stories continues. Some follow-up coverage:
Most environmentalists cheer Maryland’s new 50 percent green energy goal, but some want it vetoed. Here’s why.
Regulators pressed Western Maryland paper mill to cut pollution but preserve jobs. Now, both will vanish.
With 675 jobs set to vanish from Luke paper mill, Western Maryland workers face a big question: What's next?
Physician oversight
What started as an inside story on sexual assault allegations against a doctor turned into an investigation exposing both his criminal past and a troubling gap in oversight of the state's physicians.
My reporting revealed that the doctor had a past rape conviction that went unnoticed because Maryland regulators don't vet physicians for criminal activity. Stories uncovered state lawmakers' missteps in trying to close the regulatory gaps, and the failings of multiple layers of oversight to uncover the doctor's criminal record.
The Maryland General Assembly closed the legislative loophole in 2015, requiring continuous background checks of doctors.
Doctor had trail of troubles before rape conviction exposed
Dr. Lawrence Egbert (Kenneth K. Lam/The Baltimore Sun)
Assisted suicide
My experience covering other troubled doctors and their dealings with the Maryland Board of Physicians led me to a shocking story on a quiet morning around the holidays: Maryland stripped a doctor's license for assisting in six suicides in the state. But the doctor was not some obscure figure -- he was well known around the country, having faced prosecution in three other states for his leadership in a national "death with dignity" group.
My reporting uncovered what happened in the several years from when the doctor was first exposed in Georgia to when he was finally punished in Maryland, his home state.
It also revealed why he still has yet to face charges in Maryland and why he may never.
Maryland prosecutors considered charges against doctor who helped with suicides
Minority business
After several years of writing stories about an affirmative action program that hired minority- and women-owned companies for contracts with the state of Maryland, I had pressing questions. Who was really benefiting from the program? The state could not, would not tell me, saying it did not analyze its contracts in a way that could answer my query. So I found the answer myself -- by building a database of thousands of contracts and crunching the numbers myself.
I found what many businesspeople suspected: Most of the contract dollars went to a small number of companies, including many that should not have been considered minority-owned at all, but were rather nonprofits that worked with people with disabilities.
It took two efforts in the state legislature after my story was published, but in 2013, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law removing those nonprofits from the program.